Script Apart with Al Horner

Storyteller Sessions: Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, Sharp Objects)

Oct 22, 2023

Gillian Flynn, known for writing fascinatingly flawed female characters, discusses creating captivating characters, the controversy surrounding her work, leveraging fears in storytelling, the importance of portraying complex women, breaking stereotypes, the unique structure of 'Gone Girl', challenges of adapting novels into screenplays, and her approach to writing a novel after film and TV.

01:01:04

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Gillian Flynn

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Quick takeaways

Gillian Flynn emphasizes the importance of portraying flawed and complex female characters, breaking away from the stereotype of women as virtuous and allowing them to exhibit morally ambiguous traits.

Flynn highlights the challenges of adapting her novels into film and TV formats, discussing the difficulty of translating interiority to the screen and the significance of casting, color, and sound as storytelling elements.

Deep dives

Creating Fascinating Flawed Female Characters

Gillian Flynn discusses her fascination with writing captivating female characters who are flawed and complex. She explains the importance of allowing women to exhibit the same morally ambiguous traits as male anti-heroes, breaking away from the stereotype of women only being portrayed as virtuous. Flynn also reflects on the accusations of misogyny her work faced in the aftermath of Gone Girl and the alternative ending that was considered for the story. She emphasizes the value of creating interesting characters rather than focusing on their likability.

Introduction

4min

Leveraging Fears and Influences

9min

Complex Characters and Flawed Individuals

6min

From Journalism to Fiction: Lessons Learned

16min

Breaking Stereotypes and Embracing Complex Female Characters

4min

The Unique Structure of 'Gone Girl'

8min

Adapting Novels into Screenplays

12min

Approaching Writing a Novel After Film and TV

2min

This episode is part of our Storyteller Sessions event – a weekend of career-spanning conversations with game-changing storytellers, raising money for the Entertainment Community Fund. If you enjoy this episode or any of the episodes still to come across this weekend, please do consider donating via the link below:

Donate to our fundraiser here!

Gillian Flynn is an author, screenwriter and showrunner who delights in writing what she calls “bad women” – fascinatingly flawed female characters who she grants the freedom to kill, lie, harm and harass in a way that sometimes ruffles feathers. Take her 2012 novel Gone Girl, for example, which she later adapted into a smash hit movie with David Fincher. That murder-mystery tale of a marriage steeped in deceit captivated the world and sparked near-endless conversation about the poison and/or empowerment of its main character, Amy Dunne.

That novel and movie – released within two years of each other – didn't just make Flynn a literary darling. It also catapulted her to the summit of film and TV. In 2018, she co-wrote the brilliant Widows with Steve McQueen, and adapted her first novel, Sharp Objects, into a gloriously slow-burning limited series starring Amy Adams. Since then, she’s won cult acclaim for her streaming adaptation of Utopia, the British Channel 4 series.

In the conversation you’re about to hear, we ask Gillian how she pens her captivating characters and the social importance of allowing women to run riot on-screen and in her novels, the way that male anti-heroes are frequently permitted to do. She reflects on the accusations of misogyny that her work attracted from some female writers in the aftermath of Gone Girl’s release and reveals an alternative ending to that story that would have taken the tale of Nick and Amy Dunne in an entirely different direction.

Again, this conversation is in aid of the Entertainment Community Fund, who do extraordinary work lifting up storytellers of all descriptions and have been a vital support for entertainment industry workers affected by this summer’s strike action. If you enjoy this episode, please do consider clicking the link in the show notes and donating any amount you can to this great cause.

It was a huge privilege to share this conversation with Lilly who we can’t thank enough for her openness and insights. Again, this conversation is in aid of the Entertainment Community Fund, who do extraordinary work lifting up storytellers of all descriptions and have been a vital support for entertainment industry workers affected by this summer’s strikes. If you enjoy this episode, please do consider donating via the link below:

Donate to our fundraiser here!

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